Introduction: The current era of complementary medicine recommends supplementation of conventional therapy with other adjuncts, by diverse modes of delivery. Many chemical adjuncts to scaling and root planning, though proven to be effective have long-term limitations. The emergence of natural derivatives like green tea with its phenols, antioxidant properties and turmeric with its anti-inflammatory properties may prove to be better substituted to the synthetic derivatives.
Aim: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of 5% green tea mouthwash in comparison with 0.1% turmeric mouthwash and their effect on plaque-induced gingivitis.
Method: This pilot study was conducted among 60 subjects aged between 15-40 years who were randomly allocated into two groups. Following oral prophylaxis, group- A subjects used 5% green tea mouthwash and group-B used 0.1% turmeric mouthwash twice daily for 1 week. The efficacy of the formulations was assessed based on clinical parameters like plaque index and gingival bleeding index which were evaluated at baseline and after 1 week.
Results: In this clinical study, all the clinical parameters showed a statistically significant reduction after 1 week with P value (<0.0001). On comparison between green tea and turmeric mouthwash the percentage reduction of the plaque index between 0 and 8th day were 69.73 and 52.49 respectively (P<0.0001), percentage reduction of gingival bleeding index between 0 and 8th day were 66.26 and 56.72 respectively (P< 0.0001).
Conclusion: Both the chemical adjuncts used in this study showed effective anti-plaque and antiinflammatory properties against plaque-induced gingivitis, with green tea mouthwash showing better results than turmeric mouthwash.
